Marc De Corte's work cannot be categorised under one heading.
This will have to do with the fact that he himself does not consider it ‘work’.
It is what he does for a living. However... not in a financial sense: his creative urge is as natural as breathing, as automatic as a heartbeat.
Just as everyone needs food and drink, Marc needs creation, needs the search... and yes: also needs to find answers and solutions.
Dr Oliver Czarnetta, Master sculptor, art historian, writer and philosopher said some years back, ‘Marc, you are a maker. You make things happen’.
It stuck, so much so that today Marc sees himself more as a ‘maker’ than an artist. The search for materials, new techniques, the fascinating interplay of innovative and familiar gives Marc energy, it makes him sparkle.
He is a 'creator'.
But what exactly does it mean to be a ‘creator’ ? You immediately think of someone who makes something out of nothing, a creator. This is a very material approach, and only part of what a maker really is.
A maker is above all a creative problem solver , someone who ‘does’, an innovator. Makers are not just about making ideas tangible, material: more than anyone else, they are able to see all possibilities and apply their creativity to find solutions to everyday challenges.
‘Being a maker’ describes above all a mentality, a search for new material, new possibilities, energy that is accessible to everyone but in the hands of a maker turns into something unseen, previously non-existent.
As a maker, Marc also knows above all that he cannot do everything alone. Far from it.
It is important to know and respect your limitations. Only then do you free up energy for your talents without getting bogged down in knowledge you don't possess, expectations that are unachievable on your own.
So it is also important to be a good team player. The human ego is often a prison. It blinds and stifles your possibilities, makes you believe in goals you will never achieve on your own.
Marc built a team of unique souls, people with the same goal under one dome: to create beauty in an increasingly dark world.
A maker does not usually limit himself to one subject, one story, one technique. He surveys the landscape of possibilities and gets to work, thinking along the way, driven by a very action-oriented attitude.
Although Marc achieved the title of Master of Fine Arts in 1997, he has never felt comfortable with the job description ‘artist’. Again: because he feels this is not a job, it is about a way of being.
‘Artist’, moreover, you cannot ‘become’ an artist, you either are or you are not. But this entirely aside. ‘Artist’ has been given due weight in our recent history, a weight that Marc does not always agree with.
Our society likes to attribute creations to an individual, names and egos became very important on social media, that fleeting world where nothing seems to be real. A world where you can have hundreds of thousands of followers by commenting on others... and not create anything yourself... besides your comments.
So that Marc prefers to be a ‘maker’ rather than an ‘artist’ and has heeded some great passions within his urge to create, let them have the space to live independently, to grow.
He has always been a ‘visualist’, a sculptor.
A writer is unlimited in pages, a singer in minutes and chords. As an image-maker, you get 1 chance: 1 image.
With that one image you evoke an emotion, if you are lucky. And if you're even luckier, then it's an emotion that will benefit someone: peace, strength, comfort, joy....
Luckily, like a musician, Marc can play with different instruments.